Project for the Corner of Saint-Laurent and Maisonneuve
You might want to download the presentation document, a 2 mb PDF file in French only. Although, there is a map you can refer to while you read.
This fictitious project given at school, was to work on the corner of Saint-Laurent and Maisonneuve where there is a bus stop and the entrance to metro Saint-Laurent. Basically, they chose a spot on which whatever we did, it would have been good.
This part of the city is strongly defined by arts and cultures. During summer, streets around here are often reserved for pedestrians such that nobody worries about a car hitting them.
Our team went a little further on the project than what was originally planned. West of Saint-Laurent on Maisonneuve, up to metro Place-des-Arts, there are a few under exploited green spaces, so we decided to make a link between them which would create a link between both metro stations.
This link is created through a roof starting off as the roof of the bus shelter and it travels around the east side of Saint-Laurent, while becoming more and more fragmented because of the little waterfall. Upon arriving to the west side, the roof sinks into the ground. Further away, it gets out, no longer as a roof but as an urban bridge over Saint-Urbain street and it comes down right before reaching Jeanne-Mance street. This bridge creates a belvedere over the area where arts and cultures are most predominant.
The waterfall mentionned, is next to the house’s walls on the south of the place. Roughly, the North if on the bottom left corner of this photo. The waterfall is there to symbolize the back of a scene as if the whole place was a stage. For that reason, the benches are placed around that stage for artists. A person coming out of the metro station can walk under the waterfall (without getting wet) to reach the bus stop.
All year long, most people wait for the bus. At night, people wait for each other. It means that Metro Saint-Laurent serves a waiting area as it is downtown and there are many bars, clubs and restaurants in the surroundings. At the time of this writing, whatever we wait for, it is quite an uncomfortable place.
The design of the whole area makes it not only a more comfortable place to wait, but also a good place to relax and read or have lunch under the sun.
Take a look at the design of the bench, the lamp and the bus shelter created for this project.
